Database systems typically allow administrators or other authorized users to reset the database to an older state. Generally, such resets require that data be retrieved from an external backup of the database. For example, if the data volumes storing the database are backed up daily, an administrator may be able to reset the database to the previous day's state by retrieving the backup data from the previous day. Such backup techniques are desirable for many purposes, and ensure that data is recoverable in the event of catastrophic system errors. It is also desirable to be able to avoid the loss of data during the replication or copying process.
Many replication management systems allow administrators or other authorized users to restore the data and databases in the event of a crash or other error. For example, in the event of a crash or other error, the last known good version of the database may be retrieved and brought up to date to the time of the crash or error using data from a data log or point in time (PIT) copy of the database. This process takes considerable time, requires many steps and is error prone. Thus it would be beneficial to reduce the time, complexity and inherent errors in locating, loading and restoring a database.
At times, an administrator or other user may wish to more frequently and easily recover or restart a database in an earlier known state. In such situations, the use of existing techniques would decrease the availability of the database system and require valuable time, hardware and other resources. It would be desirable to provide improved systems, methods and computer code for recovering and restarting databases in a known earlier state and to ensure that an immediate prior version is available upon the initiation of the replication process. Such systems, methods and computer code should not incur unduly burdensome overhead. It would also be desirable to provide a system, method and computer readable medium with program instructions for reverting a database to a prior state by use of a single command. In addition, it would be desirable to have the capability to selectively process UNDO and REDO commands during data replication when a target volume is overwritten with data from a source volume thus preventing the loss of valuable data. The present invention addresses such needs and provides such systems, methods and computer code.